The first thirteen verses of the eleventh chapter of Luke’s gospel are in essence Jesus’ response to one request, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Jesus responds first with the Lord’s Prayer, providing a succinct model or pattern for our prayers, followed by a parable teaching us the attitude we are to have when we pray, all of which presumes that we pray. Knowing how to pray is of course no benefit if we don’t do it. But what exactly is prayer?
Tag Archives: Christianity
The Good Portion
Mary’s Christ-centered worship was of eternal significance, while Martha’s distractions were a form of idolatry. What Jesus graciously revealed to Martha is that worship is the one thing necessary, taking precedence over everything else. In Christ, the good portion is ours forever. Let us be faithful to feast upon it today!
Me and My Neighbor
To love those who love you is reciprocity. To love those who don’t is grace. And just as God has bestowed the immeasurable riches of his grace upon us, loving us while we were yet sinners, so we must gratefully respond to this grace by bestowing it upon others, loving our neighbor as ourself, and may all that we do then be done in love.[14]
The Joy of Serving Christ
You now know this, and in this revelation is your joy! Do you see it? Do you know it? Then, rejoice and share it. For, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” (Luke 10:23).
The King’s Heralds
It is his word by his Spirit that does the work, as he told the seventy-two, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). We are simply called to be the King’s heralds, but where the gospel is preached the kingdom is near.
What Does Following Jesus Look Like?
Jesus traveled from region to region, from town to town primarily on foot. And he didn’t travel alone. At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus had a large following, made up not only of his chosen twelve but many more, some of whom he would commission into vocational ministry, as we will see in the next chapter. And as he traveled, he conversed with those who followed him as well as those who would, such as the three types we find our passage today, whom I call the naive, the preoccupied, and the half-hearted.
Serving As Christ’s Church
And so, serving as Christ’s church, alongside those who are for us, we advance the gospel to our neighbors and the nations, trusting God for the increase. For, as undeserving sinners saved only by the grace of God, we too desire others to receive the same. Indeed, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace [we] have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). Such is the testimony of Christ’s church.
Greatness Defined
Greatness for the Christian then is defined as Christ-like humility, humbling ourselves before God and others. Jesus said, “he who is least among you all is the one who is great” (Luke 9:48c). And what he said he lived, that we might live through him.
Let This Sink In
Though Jesus’ disciples did not understand in the moment, they would, and through their testimony we do too. Indeed, the Son of Man was delivered into the hands of lawless men, that he who kept the law might make us the righteousness of God.[10] May this truth sink into our ears forever!
Christ’s Commissioned Church
And so, as maturing disciples, we make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching, but we do not make them for ourselves. For Christ has promised to be with us “always,” not only for today but “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
Planter, Pastor, Preacher 